CHARLESTON – Personal injury attorneys spent more than $2 million trying to elect judges and justices during the 2024 election, according to research done by West Virginia Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse.
But a statewide group for trial attorneys disputes WV CALA’s numbers, saying they are “grossly inflated.”
In a press release, WV CALA also says a majority of that money was given to candidates for circuit court candidates across the state, with more than $500,000 of that amount going directly to candidates for Kanawha County judicial positions.
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The numbers also show $117,000 was contributed by personal injury lawyers to state Supreme Court candidates and $90,000 to Intermediate Court of Appeals judges in 2024.
WV CALA says the information for its report was obtained from publicly available campaign finance reports on the West Virginia Secretary of State’s website, also noting that not all of the information for independent expenditures are included in this report because of different campaign finance reporting requirements for non-legislative races.
“There is no doubt that the personal injury lawsuit industry is the biggest spending special interest group in the state,” WV CALA Executive Director Greg Thomas said. “They bought their local county courthouses in 2024, and now they’re trying to buy the state Senate.”
But the president of the West Virginia Association for Justice questions the numbers and Thomas’ motives.
“A cursory review of the campaign contribution totals cited by Greg Thomas in his news release show that his numbers are grossly inflated,” Kelly Reed told The West Virginia Record. “Indeed, his claim on contributions to West Virginia Supreme Court candidates is more than 200 percent over what those actual contributions are.
“One has to wonder what his true intentions are when his math is off by that much. We are completing a detailed analysis and will release a comprehensive review when it is.”
According to WV CALA, personal injury attorneys donated $28,000 to state Senator Laura Chapman’s 2026 election campaign at a June fundraiser in Charleston. The group says Chapman (R-Ohio) was the first lawmaker to have such a fundraiser in Charleston. Sen. Tom Willis (R-Berkeley) was scheduled to have one earlier this month.
“Voters who want to see West Virginia get more jobs, better infrastructure and improved access to affordable healthcare need to carefully observe who is funding their legislative candidates in the upcoming election,” Thomas said. “If liberal personal injury lawyers from Charleston are the main donors to your local ‘conservative’ state Senator, then maybe they aren’t quite as conservative as you think.
“The 2026 election is the time to tell the greedy personal injury lawyers that West Virginia is not for sale.”
